St. Paul daily globe., 1887-08-21


pering to each other ;sOme knew the un-
easiness of the young soldier, and i'm
mediately supposed that he had taken
his flight so as not to be compelled to
fire upon the wOrkmen.
The sub-lieutenant swore furiOusly on
account of this deSertiOn; but 1T was no
time to think of pursuing the runaway.
In the darkness hiding was so easy that
it would be losing time, and, besides,
the platoon was in a great hurry to reach
the glass works.
After calling him once again, the SOL
dierS resumed their march, and soon
the sound of their footsteps was the only
noise breaking the stiffness of the night.
The young soldier had not deserted.
While his companions were calling him
he was lying unconscious at the foot of
the declivity across the top of which the
highway ran.
John was thunderstruck when, on re-
gaining his senses, he found himself
lying there, benumbed and covered with
mud. How had he slipped? How had
he rolled down there?
He listened, but heard no sound.
His comrades must not have seen him
fall.
He remembered that he had been a
little way behind the others, and re-
fiected that in the face of so binding a
rain it was quite possible that his fall
might have passed unnoticed.
He tried to get up, but an atrOciouS
pain seemed to pin him to the earth.
His left leg was like bar of lead, and
at every motion it caused him to cry out
aloud.
Then he got frightened on thinking
that he was wounded and all alone in
that black country. Were they going
to abandon him there?
He had raised himself upon one elbow,
but let himself fall back heavily. His
shake had caught on to something dur
ing his fall, leaving him bareheaded to
the cold rain, which drenched his short,
curly, fair hair, of which he was SO
proud. Poor John! Who would have
recognized in the unfortunate being
stretched at full length in the mud the
dainty little soldier, always so taste
fully primped up, and who invariably
caught the eyes of all the women on the
promenade? . ~
He suffered so atrociousfy that he did
not have courage enough to examine
himself and try to find out the extent of
| his injury. His whole leg felt as if it
had been ground up in mill. And
still, it might not be so serious. He re-
membered that, once upon a time, he
had felt that same feeling of general
soreness, caused by violent blow from
a stick. 1t might mot amount to any
| thing, and yet he could not remain
there, lying in the mud and water, shiv-
ering with cold. He would eventually
| go to sleep, and the next morning they
would find him there, dead! He did not
the mud, like dead dog? Cost whatit
may he had to get back to the road and
wait till some one came along. In short,
| it was not such great undertaking,
only ten meters to go!
What a torture those ten meters were
to him, as, with the aid of trees, roots
and rocks, dragging his lifeleSS leg
along, he tried to get up to the road at
the top of the slope. Twenty times he
came near giving up: twenty times he
was on the point of lying where he was
and waiting-even for death! But his
youth rebelled against the idea; love of
life seemed to urge him on, and at
length he reached tile road. His
strength was failing fast, and all he
could hope for now was that somebody
might come along before it was too
late.
wretched man that seconds seemed to
him eternitieS.
Fever kept him awake, his feet were
frozen, his head as if on fire, all his
body shaking with a shiver which
caused insufferable twitches to run
through his leg. He no longer had
strength enough to cry out, and he
could only give vent to his sutferings in
low means.
All of a sudden, while under the in
fluence of kind of nightmare, he heard
voices singing. He listened. 1t was
salvation, it was life, because they were
coming his way. o, but how slowly
they seemed to walk AT last. he could
distinguish in the darkness the forms
of five meu, walking arm in arm. When
within few steps of where John lay
they stopped singing. So much the
When he saw them quite near, he cried
out:
"Help! Help!"
The men stopped.
''Helpl" cried he again.
The astOnished men went up to him,
and one of them, noticing his uniform,
exclaimed: Hello! it is one of those
soldier hounds who has got his dose.''
Then another, who carried a pickax,
cried OUT "Well, let's finish him."
With these words he raised the tool.
On hearing the well-known voice John
had cried out wildly, ''PeterI"
The pickax had fallen, however. The
soldiers exclamation had caused the
blow to deviate; nevertheless, the point
of the pickaX struck the helpless SOL
dier, opening a gaping wound in his
side.
The man, terrified by that name-his
name-called out so suddenly in such a
IL no ovfr
nate soldier who had fallen back fainting
to the earth. His surprised companions
did not quite understand, but their IN
stinct told them something horrible was
going on. At last Peter knelt down,
and gently taking hold of the soldiers
head with his trembling hands, he
turned the face so as to get look at his
features:
'It is John!'
''These words came hoarsely from ont
his painting breast. Had the ground
opened in front of him it would not
have stupefied him as much as did the
sight of that bleeding man lying there
in the road before him.
Then he seemed to come to himself
again; he rapidly passed his hand over
his brow, and then, with the most toudh-
ing care, he raised the body in his her
culean arms. AS he was about to. rise
to his feet his companions stepped up as
if to assist him, when, with a look, he
stopped them, saying in hoarse voice:
II forbid any one to touch him.
And, paying no more attention to
them, he walked off with his heavy
burden.
The nearest village was about a.quar-
ter of an hours walk from where they
were. Peter went over this long dis
tance without resting, going along
slowly, now and then stopping as the
plants of the wounded man became too
painful. The rain had ceased, but the
brow of the striker was beaded with
perspiration, and each time he stopped